Report: 85% of Ransomware Victims Get Taken Offline For A Week or More

New research reveals that the majority of ransomware victims (85 percent) had their systems taken offline for at least a week, costing businesses thousands in financial damage each day.

Despite the risk of data loss and financial damages, the report produced by Timico and Datto found that organizations still lack awareness and readiness when it comes to responding to ransomware attacks.

The survey entitled ‘The Reality of Ransomware’ polled 1,000 UK-based organizations made up of 500 SMEs and 500 large corporations – many of whom had been attacked within the last 12 months.

Well over half of respondents said their data systems went from fully functional to essentially useless within seconds and minutes, the report noted.

Of those infected, a third also said they went without their data for more than a month. Meanwhile, 15 percent reported their data was ultimately ‘unrecoverable.’

Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of respondents paid over £5,000 to retrieve their data, and 26 percent paid between £3,000 – £5,000

“Higher ransomware fees in large corporations were reported, with a third of corporate businesses paying over £5,000 to recover data compared to just half that number of SMEs (15%),” read the report.

In addition to the ransom fee paid to cybercriminals, more than half (53 percent) of respondents estimated that it cost the business between £1,000 and £2,000 per day in lost revenue.

However, perhaps the most alarming statistic involves the fact that a staggering 63 percent of UK businesses still have no official ransomware policy in place to guide staff when responding to an attack.